It was still the middle of the day when I arrived to Vinedenne, my portal opening high in the sky as I floated with the stone box. The people of the bustling city were all busy living their lives below me unaware of the danger I had recently contained. This was for the best as I still wasn't sure myself if there were more vampires out there or not. No reason to get the public in a panic.

The castle stood at the north end of the city and its gray stone stood out among the dark red rooftops of the other buildings. That was my destination and hopefully Quarely wouldn't mind me storing a vampire in his dungeon. Its not like he had much of a choice of course as he loved helping me out with things. At least I assume he does.

With stone box in tow I zoomed through the sky and down towards the castle, my ability to fly making the trip down to ground level take less than two minutes. When I made it to the castle I landed up on the high balcony overlooking the courtyard as it was closest to the lord's bedchamber. I alighted like a bird and my package floated down behind me, its occupant still quiet thankfully.

There was a single guard standing watch here and he had seen me flying down. Of course he was well aware of who I was and the familiarity meant he was only mildly nervous around me. He didn't even ask me what I was doing here and simply wished me good day. I nodded in response and walked past him into the castle.

Because of my goddess powers I didn't need to ask where Quarely was. He was in his personal dining room in the middle of this floor alongside his wife Belieal. Their children were not in this area of the castle at the moment and were likely off doing something important. So seeing it as nothing out of the ordinary I invited myself to breakfast.

The servants standing by the dining room smiled and bowed to me as I entered, my big box being kept behind me as to not knock anyone around with its bulk. Both lord and lady were surprised to see me appear but their reaction showed this wasn't entirely unexpected either.

Quarely smiled a bit awkwardly and stood from his chair. He bowed deeply to me before speaking.

“Greetings great goddess Jenna. What brings you here today?” He then looked at the stone box. “And what is that floating behind you?”

“Oh this?” I asked rhetorically. “It's why I'm here actually.”

As I spoke the box floated around from behind me to beside me. It was twice my size and a muffled voice could be heard inside of it which made both nobles visually nervous. I shook the box around a little.

“Quiet!”

The muffled voice and scraping sounds stopped and I turned my attention back to Quarely.

“There's a vampire woman inside here. I need to borrow a cell in your dungeon.”

Belieal jumped to her feet and stumbled backwards, knocking her chair over as she covered her mouth in shock.

“Vampire?”

Her husband was just as shocked but showed less fear. Quarely was used to such outrageous things when it came to me by now after all. He simply stood up straight and walked around the table to get closer to me, though not too close.

“There's an actual vampire in there?” he asked timidly. “I thought such things were myth...”

No one was doubting my words as they had no reason to. If the goddess said there was a vampire in a stone box there was one. The prisoner got a bit more active again and I sighed.

"Yes Quarely.” I said slightly annoyed. “If you don't mind I'd like to go down to the dungeon immediately. Also send for my wizard friend wont you?”

Quarely stood up straight again and cleared his throat.

“Of course goddess. Feel free to use the dungeon as you see fit.” He paused and looked at the box nervously. “I do hope you'll ensure the erm... Prisoner is secure.”

I waved my left hand dismissively and looked to the side.

“Don't worry bout it! I'm a holy being remember? That's the number one counter to the undead!”

Quarely cleared his throat again and remained nervous.

“Ah and about the mage goddess. I'm afraid Ferherlyn is off on one of his duties and isn't available.” He avoided eye contact. “There is someone more suited for this anyway. You might remember the mage Yoko. I can have him sent for immediately if you wish.” He paused. “He's more educated on such... Taboo magics...”

I tapped my left fingers to my chin. That name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it.

“Who's Yoko again?” I asked.

Quarely gulped and smiled weakly.

“He's the mage specializing in void magic goddess. You've only met him once. The same day we met I believe.”

Ignorant of why he was so worked up I shrugged and turned on my heels.

“Yeah works for me! I'm sure he'll be useful too.”

While I started walking out of the room Quarely bowed again and let out a long sigh of relief.

“Very good goddess! It shall be done.”

With my magical assistant on the way I started walking through the castle with the stone box trailing behind me. There wasn't really a reason to stop and chat with anyone so I just kept to myself. Social situations were awkward for me anyway. Thankfully no one was overly interested in stopping me since I had such a look of concentration on my face. All I really got were polite hellos and good mornings which I returned.

Thanks to my map I already knew the entire layout of the castle and thus navigating to the dungeons took only a few minutes. There weren't many people imprisoned down there either which was something I liked about Quarely's ruling style. Crime really wasn't that high in his province. Because of this the dungeon didn't need more than a couple guards.

It was dark down here though as it was underground, buried beneath the castle proper alongside the cellars and castle foundations. As I went down the long spiral staircase the torches on the walls became the only source of light. The entire place had that spooky liminal feeling about it. There were long stone hallways, limited torchlight, and the odd stillness in the air that carried moldy must.

Eventually I came to the end of a long hallway of unoccupied cells. These were pretty large, about the size of a small room, and were probably for more the political prisoners. They were actually decorated with pretty decent wooden furniture and had only a few rats wandering around. Small ones too, not big enough for eating.

Ugh just thinking about that made me sick.

I walked up to the large iron door and pushed it open, walking inside with the stone box behind me. Once I was in I closed the door with a metallic clang and moved the box to the middle of the room. Then after taking a deep breath I released it, the entire thing crumbling into rubble and revealing its contents.

The vampire woman immediately jumped to her feet and scanned frantically for escape vectors. However upon seeing me standing in front of her and me alone she quickly put on the air of someone cool and collected. Fake it until you make it I suppose.

“Welcome back!” I said holding out my arms and smiling.

The woman snorted and put her right hand on her hip and cocked it to the side.

“Dragging me into a dungeon to torture me like some common peasant?” she sneered. “I thought something more fancy of a goddess like you.”

I dropped my arms and walked in a small half circle around the cell, the stone walls covered in light patches of green. My hands were moved behind my back as I took casual steps.

“You never gave me your name you know. Should I force it out of you with torture or just drag it out of your mind with magic?” I stopped and looked at her. “If you're of higher standing you've learned what manners are correct?”

After me calling her out like this she stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest. She stuck out her chest and looked much more prideful.

“My name is Neske” she said. “Neske Felelem.”

Using my telekinesis I slid the chair and table in here over to where she was standing. The chair stopped behind her while the table moved in front of her. While it surprised her at first she didn't seem too disturbed by magical shenanigans. The scraping of wood on stone was grating though.

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I gestured to the chair as I walked up to the other side of the table.

“Take a seat.”

While she decided if she should or not I lifted one of the stones in the floor up higher out of the ground so I could stand on it and be at level with her gaze. Then I leaned into the table and let out a long sigh. Seeing the annoyance in my expression she decided to sit down, elegantly of course.

“I suppose you're wondering why you're still alive.” I stated, not asked.

After waiting for a follow up and seeing there wasn't one she readjusted herself in the chair and lifted her chin.

“Honestly I have no idea why you haven't given me final death yet. You seem like the holier than thou kinds of goddesses.”

My fingers tapped on the table in a rhythmic motion as I thought about the reason myself. It was for information and learning about vampire mythology in this world. Hopefully she'd be cooperative. My fingers stopped and I hung my head for a moment before lifting it back up.

“I want information out of you Neske. Unlike some of the other goddesses you might know about, or perhaps have known personally, I'm more of a down to earth sort of goddess.” I noticed her looking behind me and I snapped my fingers, drawing her gaze. “And no. Turning into mist or a bat isn't going to get past me. I know all your tricks vampire. I'm immune to hypnosis as well I'm sure.”

This made Neske settle down into her chair more comfortably, her arms still crossed over her chest as she seemed to feel safer. At least for the moment. There was a smug feeling I was getting from her that confused me and annoyed me.

“Alright goddess” she smirked. “Just know I'll die before telling you anything.”

I smirked in return and stood up straight on my stone stepstool.

“I thought you'd say that. That's why I brought this!”

With one quick movement I moved my hand to my non-existent pocket and whipped it up and out again. Now in my hand I was holding a small silver cross and I held it out into the vampire's face.

Neske looked at the cross and became visibly confused. As it was held there she actually looked from it in my hand up to my face and then back again.

“W-What is that?” she asked.

I was baffled myself and brought my hand back, staring at the cross and then at her across the table.

“Its a cross! Its supposed to work...”

This actually made Neske annoyed and she sat up straight again, placing her hands in her lap as she looked at me with narrow eyes.

“If this comedy act is your idea of torture than I'd rather get straight to the pulling of fingernails. At least that's bearable.”

With a disappointed sigh I dismissed the cross and replaced it with a small flashlight. I suppose it made sense that didn't work in this different world. I'm having too much fun playing interrogator though to let it dampen my mood so I decided to keep going. I whipped the flashlight into her face and turned it on, blinding her and causing her to blink repeatedly.

“Get that out of my face you bitch!” she growled.

I kept the light in her eyes as she tried shielding her face with her hand.

“I think not sucky slob!” I countered. “You're going to tell me how many friends you have out there!” My voice rose as I slammed the table with a fist. “Who are you working for?”

Neske had managed to block most of the light now and looked absolutely furious.

“Like I'd ever tell you that!” She shouted.

I turned off the flashlight and stood back up straight again, dismissing it like I had the cross. Then I crossed my arms over my chest and held up my left fist to my chin.

“So you are working for someone!” I said thoughtfully. The extra angry face I got in response only solidified it. “But I suppose you won't be telling me that even under torture though?”

The annoyed vampire just crossed her arms again and turned to look away from me. She was clearly quite pissed and refused to even speak to reply. Although she took my interrogation as a joke she didn't know this was a real tactic. If she got angry enough she'd slip up without even realizing it like she just had. It didn't even require real torture! Yay!

I decided to drop my bad cop act and switch over to good cop. As I tapped my left foot on the stone I was standing on my arms dropped to my sides, my left now resting on my hip. My head also cocked slightly to the left.

“My friend will be here shortly so I'll have to secure you.” I then lifted my head up straight. “While asking why you hate goddesses is silly I'd like to know how old you are. Also why you'd want the werewolves dead.”

While waiting for her response I got down off the stone block, it sliding back down into the floor as I did so. It seemed these questions were ones she wasn't opposed to answering as she did so as I walked around to her.

“I don't know why a goddess cares about my age” she said haughtily. “But I'm well over five-hundred years old. As for the mongrels I don't need any more reason than they deserve death. They're twisted versions of already inferior beings.” She snorted. “Disgusting.”

At this point I was standing right next to her and I quickly snatched both of her wrists in my hands. She jumped in surprise at this but didn't struggle or attack. It seemed she had grown at least somewhat comfortable around me which had been one of my goals. Not only so she'd drop her guard but also so she was more cooperative.

“Yeah they are” I said thoughtfully as I summoned more shackles. I then looked up at her face. “But so what? Isn't everyone inferior to someone else?”

Neske stared down at my face with a look of shock. It was like she had heard something profound for the first time in a hundred years. My words really seemed to sink in and make her think. Whatever she was comparing herself to it seemed to really hit close to home.

As she was busy exploring philosophy I lifted my hands away and summoned chains from them like string. Then I bent over and attached them to the floor with large metal rings. Once that was done I stood back up and put my hands on the manacles again.

Neske looked at me in confusion.

“What are you doing?”

I replied while continuing my task.

“Oh just making these manacles anti-magic.”

With great focus I brought the concept of anti-magic into my mind. Then I imagined these manacles and attached chains as having an aura around them. It was sort of like drawing something and then coloring in it. While doing this I noticed a peculiar glow on one of the rings on her fingers as well on the belt she was wearing. I brought up my imaginary scanning overlay on my vision and looked closer at the ring. Then spoke out loud.

“Identify.”

When Neske heard this she seemed nervous and tried to move her hand away. Of course she couldn't. Neither of us said anything though, in her case in order to keep herself out of trouble.

My magical identification revealed the properties of the ring. It had a powerful spell on it that gave the wearer permanent protection from heat energy. In other words sunlight! Either this vampire is more powerful than she seems or she got this from someone pretty powerful. Identifying her belt revealed it gave the wearer enhanced strength, even further beyond what vampires normally had.

Now armed with new and useful information I continued with the manacles. Pushing the anti-magic spell into them with my mana I infused the metal with the enchantment. Once that was finished I pulled my hands away and smiled with satisfaction. It hadn't taken as much mana as I thought it would. This vampire wasn't going anywhere now and wouldn't be able to pull even a party trick.

As I had been working a human had moved down the hallway and into view of the both of us through the metal bars. I had seen him coming from the stairway of course since that's how far out I was looking with goddess vision so his appearance wasn't a surprise to me.

This human was a tall man with a very sickly appearance. His hair was short, thin, and black. All of his skin was deathly pale and seemed almost flaky. Even his eyes were a disconcerting shade of green. Adorning his thin frame were deep violet robes of regal design. This was Yoko: the half mad master of void magic. The mage that even gave me a bit of a shudder when I looked into his eyes.

His voice matched his appearance and seemed almost like a whine. He stood there with his hands tented in front of his chest as he peered through the bars at us. Even the vampire got a shiver down her spine and a look of disgust on her face.

“Hello great and powerful goddess” he said. “I was told you called for me. Hehehe.”

His little giggle almost wheezed out of him and whatever he found funny was for him alone.

With one last look at the vampire I walked over to the door of the cell and stepped through it as if it wasn't even there. Behind me the sounds of rattling chains proved the prisoner hadn't given up on escape quite yet. That's why the mage was here.

I stepped out in front of Yoko and looked up into his face with a shallow sigh.

"You know quirky isn't that much of a bother for me, though you do challenge the definition of the word. Thanks for coming."

Yoko just smiled and bowed deeply to me.

"Of course Goddess Jenna. Little insignificant me is just happy a goddess remembered my existence. We all get our time in the sun before darkness consumes us. Even you goddess."

I crossed my arms and frowned.

"Sorry to disappoint you" I retorted. "But when my time comes I'll be heading back into the light with my father. You could too I'm sure. If you wanted to."

Yoko stood back up again and smiled at me in a creepy way.

“That light I fear is beyond even me.” He almost sounded sad. “Though redemption can come to even a wretch's life.”

I decided not to put too much thought into what he might know or be talking about and return to the task at hand. Dropping my arms to my sides I used my left hand to point to Neske.

“I'm sure you can already tell that's a vampire. I've called you here for a bit of babysitting. You're familiar with necromancy I assume?”

Yoko nodded and wrung his hands together.

“Of course goddess! Its forbidden. Of course I've never tried it even once.”

I rolled my eyes at his response and turned back to face him. Both hands were not planted on my hips.

“Sure you haven't” I replied apathetically. “Now what I want you to do is keep a close eye on her. She's bound in anti-magic shackles. So as long as you don't take those off she wont be able to do anything using mana. Not even activate her vampire powers.” I looked at her and then up at him. “Not that I think you're capable of being hypnotized.”

The sickly mage simply nodded and stared off into nowhere in particular as he responded.

“Anti-magic shackles. So easily produced too.” He then looked over at Neske. “Not to worry goddess. I'm not enthralled by the more.... Womanly form either.”

“Good” I responded quickly. “Now if you excuse me I'll be heading out now. We're keeping her here until I decide what to ultimately do with her. Her name is Neske.” I started walking away and waved over my shoulder. “You two have fun now!”

Neske stared at the mage and then watched me leave with wide eyes. Her chains rattled as she struggled against her bonds.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “You're not leaving me here alone with him are you?”

I continued walking and completely ignored her prompting her to act more desperately.

“Hey! Goddess!”

While it was very interesting how even an ancient vampire like her could get scared by a simple human mage it wasn't my concern how happy she was while imprisoned. I mean I got how she felt. Something about Yoko and void magic as a whole just put off a real creepy vibe that got worse the more magical attunement you had. This made him sort of the perfect person for the job of warden though.

As I walked up the stairs and back into the castle I let out a long sigh, the dismal dark dampness of the dungeon now behind me. Whatever I ultimately decided to do with the vampire it was clear I had to figure out who she had worked, or was currently working for. Those magic items she was wearing didn't come from nowhere and if she was to be believed about her age it couldn't have been from a goddess. Could a human mage really become that powerful? Even to the point they could command such powerful undead?